


Bond

by trashycatarcade



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst with a Happy Ending, Familiar Keith, Familiars, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Mild comedy, Minor Injuries, Minor Violence, Soul Bond, Witch Hunt, Witchcraft, minor torture, slowish burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-27
Updated: 2018-03-24
Packaged: 2018-11-19 20:51:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11321487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trashycatarcade/pseuds/trashycatarcade
Summary: After buying a gift for his Mom, Lance is dragged into the role of a witch to his new familiar, Keith.





	1. Chapter 1

Lance looked at the brown paper bag sitting on his coffee table one more time. Lance was more than thrilled to have the perfect gift for his Mom’s birthday. He knew she didn’t love super flashy and over the top jewelry, so he had gone to an antique shop. Initially, he thought the dark and incense-smelling shop was a bit creepy, but he put that behind him when he spotted the perfect item for his Mom. A very old looking charm shaped like a lock hung from a silver chain and Lance knew he had to buy it. The cashier, and only other person in the store, was a bit odd, which Lance shrugged off easily. 

 

Lance had placed the paper bag containing the necklace on the coffee table in his living room and mostly forgot about it for the day. He hung around his apartment for a few hours doing school work and went out for dinner with a few of his peers. Lance had come home and passed out on the couch watching reruns of Battlestar Galactica that happened to be on. 

 

When he woke up, he was a bit disoriented by not being in his bed… and his neck hurt from sleeping in an uncomfortable position. He sat up and rubbed his neck a little and squinted at the clock on the wall. It was only about seven thirty in the morning. The tv was still on so he shut it off and got up from the couch. He found his phone in between the couch cushions and groaned at all the notifications and the low battery warning on the screen. Lance started to walk to his bedroom where his charger was and passed the kitchen without really paying attention. He had failed to notice the man sitting on his kitchen counter.

 

“Good morning.” Lance was shook from his trance at the sound of another person in his apartment. The apartment where he lived alone. Lance screamed and bolted for his bedroom, slamming the door shut to distance himself from the intruder. 

 

“I don’t want to die today, my wallet’s on the counter!” Lance yelled through the closed door and he heard footsteps coming towards the door. Lance saw the shadows of the other person from the crack between the door and the floor. His breathing hitched in fear. 

 

“Uh… what? I don’t want to take anything from you?” The stranger said in a convincingly confused tone. Lance wasn’t buying this psychos act.

 

“Yeah okay, whatever! If you’re not robbing me then what do you want?” Lance called out.

 

“I think I should be asking you that, actually.” The stranger said. 

 

“I have literally no idea what you’re talking about!” Lance said and the stranger sighed deeply, loud enough for Lance to hear it through the shut bedroom door. Lance was sincerely concerned for his life now. This lunatic was probably playing some weird murder game with him. Maybe he could climb out the window? Nope, he was on the third floor and wouldn’t make the fall. Maybe-

 

“Are you joking? Because I’m not really in the mood after being imprisoned for like give or take two hundred years! You know, I was expecting my master to be a dick but this is just ridiculous!” The stranger huffed and kicked the door out of anger. 

 

“What are you talking about?!” Lance yelled. The stranger was oddly quiet for a few moments and then the door Lance had been hiding behind disappeared. Like, just vanished before his eyes and the intruder was suddenly right in front of him giving him the most terrifying death glare ever. Lance shrieked and began to make a run for it to quickly realize he had nowhere to run. 

 

“You’re the one who summoned me! Why are you trying to get rid of me?” The stranger growled and began approaching Lance as Lance backed away. In the back of his mind, Lance took note that the man was dressed like he had just come from a renaissance fair. 

 

“I don’t understand, I summoned you? Where did the door go?!” Lance asked with slight hysteria. 

 

“Yes? I’m here aren’t I? How else would this work?” The stranger retorted with a scoff. Lance’s eyebrows furrowed in greater confusion. 

 

“I’m sorry, but I am so confused right now.” Lance crossed his arms and stared the intruder down. 

 

“I’m your familiar? You’re my master, technically speaking. You apparently are such a shit witch that you couldn’t bond with a familiar so you resorted to buying one? Ring any bells?” The stranger proceeded to lift up his shirt with no warning at all to show off a tattoo of swirling black ink; the tattoo consisted of vines of ivy swirled around the name McClain written in curly cursive font. Lance paled at the sight of his own last name tattooed on a stranger.

 

“That’s fake right? Someone put you up to this to mess with me? What are you even talking about with this ‘familiar’ stuff? Like from that one episode of Supernatural?” Lance awkwardly  laughed a little, silently praying that this was a joke, even though he had seen a door disappear with his own two eyes. 

 

“This is just insulting, you know? No wonder you had to buy a familiar, you have horrible people skills.” The stranger said irritably. 

 

“I do not! I am a social butterfly!” Lance argued. At this point, the stranger had gotten sick of the games and grabbed the bottom if Lance’s shirt to pull it up, same as he had done a moment before to his own. Lance yelped and moved to pull it back down but was stunned to see familiar vines wrapped around another name on his ribcage. The name, Lance could only assume, belonged to the stranger that sported the nearly identical tattoo. Lance felt like he was going to faint. 

 

…

 

“S-so you’re telling me magic is real? And witches and demons are real?” Lance stuttered out. The stranger, who Lance found out was named something complicated in latin, nodded. The stranger had simply said to call him Keith, it was easier. “Wait, are mermaids real?” 

 

“No, you imbecile.” Keith shook his head in disbelief. 

 

“So, you were stuck in a charm? And I activated some type of soul bond between us?” 

 

“Yes and I still don’t understand how you were able to free me, I’ve been passed to tons of people over the years and none of them had been able to. You were able to without even trying, you must have a really powerful witch somewhere down the line in your family.” 

 

“I couldn’t tell you.” Lance shrugged. He had calmed down a little at this point, he accepted that this world was full of mysteries and this was one of them. He still was panicking a tiny bit too, but wanted to find out as much as possible about the situation first and foremost.

 

“There’s ways to break the bond, but you’re not a witch so I’m not really sure how to. We both agree we want to break the bond, right?” Keith hoped Lance would agree. If Keith didn’t get out if the bond he would be stuck with a human until one of them died.

 

“Yeah, of course, I’ll help you as best as I can with this. I’m sure this is a really shitty situation for you..” Lance agreed and Keith sighed in relief. 

 

“I have some ideas about where to start with this, I’m going to need some supplies though.” Keith said. 

 

“For what?” 

 

“Well, I don’t really have a lot of energy right now to do anything other than simple spells, which are not very helpful. Familiars can’t eat normal food for energy, we feed off other’s energy and life force, quintessence. Witches usually are able to draw some of their quintessence for their familiar to feed off of easily, but you’re not a witch. That means I’m going to need you to… well sacrifice some animals to me,” Lance’s eyes widened in shock, “Don’t worry! It’s not that difficult, peasants used to do it all the time for favors and stuff. All you need are candles and some type of animal.”

 

“I wasn’t worried about the difficulty! I don’t want to sacrifice an animal so you can drain the life out of it!” Lance exclaimed and Keith was slightly taken back by Lance’s refusal. 

 

“I could always just take your quintessence instead. I’m not good at stopping though.” Keith shrugged and scooted closer to Lance. A mischievous grin broke out across Keith’s face and Lance gaped at him. 

 

“No! I’ll get you mice or something, geez!” Lance said and moved to get some more distance from Keith. Keith chuckled and nodded. 

 

“After the sacrifice, I should be strong enough to do a locator spell to find the nearest witch to help us with this er... situation. I’m going to need more than candles for that though. Nothing crazy, just sage, a pendulum, and some red wine.” 

 

“Okay, sounds fine… I guess.” Lance said without much vocal complaint. Internally he was super not okay with sacrificing animals, even if they were just mice. Lance wasn’t very religious, but he had been raised as Catholic and could only imagine how his Mom would react to this: sacrificing animals, casting spells, anything else Keith needed him to do. They all made him feel anxious and uncomfortable. 

 

“I’m sorry that this is all unfamiliar and uncomfortable for you, the sooner we get it done the sooner I’ll be out of your life.” Keith smiled empathetically. 

 

“H-how did you know how I was feeling?” Lance asked, surprised that the other boy had said that.

 

“I can feel your emotions, Lance.” Keith said simply. From Lance’s confused expression Keith realized he would have to explain a little further.  

 

“This bond isn’t only a tattoo on your chest, you know? It’s supposed to be a really significant bond that connects a witch and their familiar. It’s like the bond between a disciple and their God in a way, putting complete trust and faith into someone else. My witch was supposed to be someone I gave my life to, someone I felt I was made to serve and felt more connected to than anything else in the known universe. Though I didn’t choose you, I still feel that way about you, I can’t help it. When I was summoned and imprisoned, my right to choose was stolen from me. I had heard of this happening before, but I had never thought it would happen to me. Familiars were being sold off like good luck charms! Not only that, witches that weren’t meant to have familiars, that hadn’t found the one they were compatible with were so impatient they were buying familiars. It just- It just disgusts me! I’m not mad at you, Lance, I’m mad at the situation. I’m mad that I have all these connections to you that I can recognize and feel but you can’t because humans are not supposed to have familiars” Keith ranted and Lance listened. 

 

“I didn’t know, I’m sorry. I’m really going to try and help you the best I can.” Lance promised. Keith appreciated that Lance was being so sincere. Keith was glad that of all the people he could have gotten bonded to, it was Lance. 

 

…

 

Though Keith seemed like a moderately decent person, animal sacrificing aside, Lance didn’t trust him enough to leave him alone in his apartment. Lance had to go and get the items Keith needed, so he dragged Keith along. The trip was an unending series of questions from Keith about any small thing. “What is that person wearing? What’s that? Can you get this for me?” And so on. Lance was trying to be patient because this was all new to Keith, but eventually, Lance snapped and told Keith to stop asking questions unless they were absolutely necessary. 

 

After their second to last stop at a magic and joke shop that Keith found extremely offensive, Keith was visibly worn out. His dragged his feet, his eyes started to droop, and he had grabbed Lance’s arm so he could lean some of his weight on the human boy. They were a few blocks away from the pet shop Lance would be buying mice from when Keith leaned almost all his weight on Lance and moved so his mouth was next to Lance’s ear. 

 

“Lance, c’mon give me little blood. It won’t even hurt, I promise. Quintessence is in the blood, you know. It’ll be real quick, forget the mice.” Keith mumbled hungrily into Lance’s ear. Lance felt Keith’s breath against his skin and gulped at the other boy’s words. 

 

“Keith, no. We’re almost done, I’m getting the mice next, we’re only a few minutes away.” Lance said and tried to move away from Keith, but Keith’s grip on his arm tightened. 

 

“I’m hungry and tired, I don’t want to wait for the mice. I want you,” Keith whined. Lance regretted the choice to bring Keith along, it was obvious now that he was in no state to be walking around the city. Plus, Lance had had to play dress up with Keith and give the familiar some of his clothes to wear. Lance wished he had just thrown caution to the wind and left Keith alone in his apartment. 

 

“Okay buddy, just a little further.” Lance ignored Keith’s statement about wanting him and dragged him to the pet shop. When they reached the small store, Lance sat Keith down on the bench outside the front with their bags and instructed him to stay put. Lance only trusted Keith wouldn’t do anything crazy because Lance would be able to see him from the storefront window. 

 

Lance lied and told the store clerk the mice were for his snake and made the transaction as quick as possible. Lance peeked out the window every so often to make sure that Keith hadn’t gotten into any trouble and only saw Keith staring out into the busy city. When he got outside the store, cage of mice in hand, he realized that Keith wasn’t staring out like he had thought, he had fallen asleep sitting up. Lance nudged Keith awake and they walked to Lance’s apartment in silence, Keith leaning heavily on him. 

 

Keith collapsed onto Lance’s couch as soon as they got inside. Lance rolled his eyes and set the cage of mice on the kitchen counter. He let Keith nap for about ten minutes before waking him up with a few gentle shakes. Keith grumbled angrily but got up, knowing that once they finished the sacrifice and he ate, he would feel better. 

 

Lance watched curiously as Keith took a seat on the floor and set the candles up in a formation of three triangles, using nine candles total. 

 

“I’m not doing the sacrifice Lance, you are. Which means you need to come over here.” Keith patted the floor beside him. Lance nodded, grabbed the mice, and sat down next to Keith on the floor. Lance jumped a bit when the lights in the room turned off and the blinds to the window shut. Keith smirked and with a snap of his fingers, the candles were lit. 

 

“You’re just gonna repeat after me, I’ll go slow.” Keith said before he started spewing latin that Lance repeated when Keith paused for him to do so. Before he knew it, the sacrifice was over and Keith used what little magic he still had to flick the lights back on and open the blinds. 

 

“That’s it? I did alright?” Lance asked. 

 

“Yup.” Keith answered plainly and made a grab for the cage. Lance slapped his hand away and Keith growled. 

 

“What?” Keith snapped. 

 

“I don’t want to watch when you drain these mice, okay? Let me at least leave the room, I feel bad enough that I had to sacrifice these guys.” Lance blew the candles out and got up from the ground. He grabbed his phone off the counter and stalked off into his bedroom, closing the door that Keith had returned. Lance sat down at his desk and stared out the window. He wasn’t surprised when there was a knock at his door a few minutes later. “It’s open” he called out. Keith came in and leaned against the wall beside Lance. 

 

“I’m sorry about the mice, but they were probably going to be fed to a snake anyway, like you said. You don’t have to feel bad for trying to help me.” Keith knew he was bad at comforting others, he didn’t need anyone to tell him so, he just knew. He wasn’t sure how to make Lance feel better in this situation. 

 

“I know, but I can’t help but think about how I gave you their lives when their lives weren’t mine to give. I’m also going to school to be veterinarian, so assisting the death of animals felt, not so great.” Lance admitted. Keith looked a little confused when he said his last bit. “An animal doctor,” Lance explained. Keith nodded. 

 

“I’m sorry that you had to do that then. I guess I’m kind of desensitized to it to I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal. I wish there had been a way for you not to do that.” Keith said sincerely. 

 

“It’s a lot to take in, you know?” 

 

“Yeah, I know.” 

 

…

 

Lance sat on the couch watching Keith walk around the apartment, waving a lit bundle of sage. Keith had shut all the windows and Lance was having flashbacks to the one time he had been convinced to hotbox in a bathroom during a party in high school. The smoke from the sage made the air feel thick with the sickly sweet scent and every time Lance thought that Keith was done with the sage, he picked it back up and did yet another lap around the apartment, mumbling things in latin. Finally, Keith set the sage in the sink to allow it to go out on its own. 

 

Before Keith had started, he had popped open the wine and drank straight from the bottle, resulting in Lance questioning the other boy.

 

“I thought you only could drink quint-whatever.” Lance had crossed his arms in annoyance. 

 

“Oh, yeah, this isn’t giving me any energy or anything, but the alcohol works the same for familiars as it does for humans. I find that I do my best spell casting when I’m a little tipsy.” Keith laughed and took another swig from the bottle. Lance rolled his eyes and demanded that he got some wine too then. 

 

Keith had set the candles up in a different formation now, simply circling around where he now was sitting on the floor. Again, Keith had turned the lights off and closed the blinds, leaving the apartment dark besides the candles, especially so now that it was later in the day and the sun was setting. The pendulum was swinging back and forth in front of Keith, held up by an unseen force. Keith stayed still for a few minutes, his eyes closed, meditating, He had explained to Lance he would need to take a moment to prepare himself for the powerful spell. 

 

A location spell was not extremely difficult if you were a witch, but Keith was a familiar. Though he was more powerful than most familiars, his spell casting could never reach that of a fully trained witch. This meant that the spell was going to be a challenge for Keith. 

 

Lance watched Keith through all of this, taking sips of wine from the glass he had poured for himself. Lance gaped as Keith started to emanate a soft red glow that eventually grew to be swirling vines of red magic floating around Keith’s body. Keith finally opened his eyes and started speaking in latin once again, loudly though. His words cut through the silent atmosphere of the room and Lance felt the pulse of magic coming from them. 

 

Keith’s voice rose as he came to the end of the spell, the magic in the air felt denser to Lance if that was possible. When Keith finished, all the swirling red in the room disappeared before Lance’s eyes. All the candles went out with a woosh of breeze that had no logical reason for being there other than Keith’s magic. By now, the sun had fully set and the room was painted in only black. Until Lance noticed that the floor in front of Keith had started glowing. Lance scrambled off the couch and over to Keith, his glass was empty by now so Lance didn’t worry about any wine sloshing out of the cup. 

 

“Wait wait wait! That’s burning letters into my floor! Keith, make it stop! I rent!” Lance cried out and shook Keith’s arm. 

 

“I’ll fix it later, shut up.” Keith shushed him and Lance frowned at his floor being ruined. Lance watched the the letters and a few numbers being pyrographed into the wood. He realized it was an address. When the light dwindled out and the address was finished, Keith turned the lights back on. 

 

“So, that’s where the nearest witch is?” Lance asked. 

 

“Yeah and they’ll be expecting us. I’m not powerful enough to use a masking spell with the location spell, so they’ll be able to tell someone was looking for them.” Keith said. He reached out and the pendulum dropped into his hand from the air. He collected the candles and got up to set the items on the kitchen counter. Lance stared down at the address etched into the wood with awe and a little bit of fear. The address was only in the next town over, Altea, would probably be less than an hour away. Lance wondered if Keith expected them to go there that night?

 

“Well, I’m tired now, where can I sleep?” Keith spoke up and Lance looked up from the address to the other boy. Question answered. 

 

“The couch, I’ll get you a pillow and a blanket.” Lance replied and got up from the floor, feeling odd after what had just occurred in his apartment. 

 

The magic that Lance had felt coming from Keith welcomed him, but also suffocated him, in a non-literal sense. He couldn’t help but dwell on how the pulsing magic felt surrounding him. He was fearful from the realization that the magic had felt like a childhood friend. It made him feel nostalgic and like he was missing something. Lance went to his bedroom and got a blanket from the closet and pulled a pillow from his bed. When Lance thought for a moment, he realized Keith had no sleepwear and grabbed him some sweatpants. He returned to the living room and set the bedding up for Keith, who was glancing at him periodically from the kitchen area. 

 

Lance told Keith the couch was ready, gave him the sweatpants, and said a quiet “goodnight” before retreating into his bedroom. His mind was still stuck thinking about the magic and was having trouble settling in for the night. He had changed, shut his light off, and gotten in bed, but he was unable to quiet his thoughts. His head whipped to his bedroom door when it creaked open slowly and Keith poked his head in, a stark contrast to his entrance that morning. Keith quietly came into the room and invited himself to sit on the bed at Lance’s feet again.

 

“What are you doing, Keith?” Lance broke the silence. 

 

“You’ve been distressed since I finished the spell… I-I wanted to make sure you were okay.” Keith said, his voice faltering. Keith felt the bond tugging at him, making him feel like he needed to be there for Lance. Keith had felt Lance’s distress nagging him while he had tried to settle in on the couch. He had finally resolved to go check on the human.

 

“Sorry… I’ve just been thinking. I don’t know how to explain it, but I could, feel your magic. It was weird and unfamiliar and it made me feel kind of odd afterwards.” Lance sat up in bed. 

 

“Sometimes more perceptive humans can pick up on magic, usually when a witch performs really powerful magic, but you probably able to pick up on mine because of the bond. I wouldn’t worry about it.” Keith smiled a little. He wondered if Lance had liked his magic? He loved when other familiars would commend him for his strong spellwork. 

 

“I kind of could see it, though. Like in the air…” Lance trailed off and Keith’s eyes widened. 

 

“You could see it?” Keith reiterated and Lance nodded. “Oh, wow. I’ve never heard of a human being able to see magic… I-It’s probably just the bond.” Keith replied, his voice faltering. Humans were not supposed to be able to see magic, why could Lance see magic? Keith would know if Lance were lying and wasn’t actually human, right? The bond wouldn’t have hid Lance’s lies, plus, if he were lying about being human, he wouldn’t have brought this up. It had to have been just the bond. 

 

“You don’t sound too sure about that,” Lance frowned. Was something wrong with him?

 

“It’s the bond, I promise, everything is as normal as a familiar bonding with a human could be. It’s fine, you’re fine.” Keith said firmly, for not only Lance, but himself. 

 

…

 

Keith awoke with a start, breathing heavily. He looked around at his surroundings and memories of the previous day came flooding back to him. He shook his head, he couldn’t burden Lance with anymore than he already had, he could seek help elsewhere. He looked over the back of the couch and saw Lance in the kitchen area.  

 

Lance was at the stove cooking. Keith walked up to Lance and leaned on the counter near him. He peered over Lance’s shoulder to see he was cooking eggs. They greeted each other, Lance a little less enthusiastic due to him just waking up. Once Lance had finished his breakfast, taken a shower, and gotten dressed he found Keith in front of his bookcase in the living room, skimming the titles. 

 

“So, what’s the plan for today? Go on a witch hunt?” Lance asked and tore Keith’s attention away from the books. 

 

“Yeah, if that’s alright? I assumed you would want to break the bond as soon as possible.” Keith shrugged. 

 

“Yup, that would be ideal, no offense.” Lance chuckled. “I’m going to get you some different clothes.” Lance turned away from Keith and headed to his bedroom. He brought clothes out for Keith and waited for him to change in the bathroom. When he returned Lance had looked up the address on google maps and found that it belonged to a cafe. Lance told Keith they were going to have to have to take his car this time and Keith visibly tensed. 

 

Keith had seen cars for the first time yesterday and they scared Keith. They seemed reckless and dangerous and frankly Lance did not seem like the type of person that should be driving one. Not that he didn’t trust Lance, just from what he’s observed, Lance was an easily excitable person and seemed to make some decisions on whims. 

 

Lance led Keith to the parking garage of the building and Keith was wearily following. Lance stopped in front of his moderately-in-good-shape 2005 Impreza and unlocked the door to climb in. 

 

“I’m a really good driver.” Lance assured Keith, so he got into the passenger side of the car. Lance demonstrated how to put his seatbelt on and watched Keith struggle for a minute, trying to stifle his laughter. He leaned over and did it for Keith and they were off. Lance plugged his phone into  the aux cord and set his music at a reasonable volume. As soon as Lance had moved the car, Keith had a death grip to the door and the center counsel. 

 

Lance followed the instruction of google maps, coasting through the light morning traffic easily. Keith’s grip on the door and center counsel had loosened after about ten minutes and he was quiet for the trip. Before Lance knew it, his phone voiced out that their destination was on the right. Lance parked smoothly and alerted Keith that they were there. Keith fumbled to get out of his seatbelt and then stepped out of the car a little more smoothly. Lance again tried to contain his giggled and Keith shot him a glare. They walked up to the doors of the cafe, went in, and found a table.  

 

“Can you tell who’s a witch? Or are you going to go and ask all the employees if they’re witches? That might not end well.” Lance questioned and Keith rolled his eyes.

 

“The witch has probably concealed their power because of the location spell, I can tell if someone is a familiar though.” Keith answered and his eyes swept around the room. 

 

“Well, while you’re doing that, I’m going to go get a coffee because yesterday was exhausting.” Lance left Keith alone at the table and headed for the small line of people waiting to order. It only took a few minutes for Lance to reach the front of the line. A tall girl with long silver-white hair was behind the counter and she smiled pleasantly at Lance. Then, the smile faded and she looked at him in confusion. 

 

“I sense your bond, yet I cannot sense your magic? How can that be?” She leaned forward and whispered harshly at Lance. 

 

“I-uh, so you’re the witch. That’s actually what I, well we,” Lance turned and pointed to Keith, “need your help with.” 

 

“Meet me in the alley behind the building in five minutes.” She said, looking over Lance to Keith. Lance nodded and left the front of the store to tug Keith outside and to the back alley. He went over the girl and Lance’s short conversation for Keith on the way. They stood outside what Lance had assumed was a back door, waiting for anything to happen.

 

Lance nearly jumped out of his skin when the door slammed open, bouncing off the brick outside of the building. The girl stepped out of the door and her eyes narrowed at Keith. She closed the door with a little less force than before and eyed the pair calculatingly. 

 

“Explain yourselves.” She gestured for them to start talking and Lance felt intimidated by her authoritative aura. He looked over to Keith for help and he rolled his eyes.

 

“Tell your familiar to stop hiding in the shadows like we’re here to ambush you or something. It’s insulting and frankly ridiculous, you obviously can sense that only one of us has the ability to use magic.” Keith snarked and Lance stared at Keith in surprise. 

 

“Keith, maybe be nice to the person who we need help from.” Lance said and Keith glared back at Lance. A figure appeared from the other side of the building and came out in the open where the other three stood. It was a man with bright orange hair and a moustache to match. He stood next to the witch, sizing them up. 

 

“There, everybody’s here, why do you need my help?” She snapped impatiently. 

 

Keith explained that he had been captured and somehow had been released by Lance, resulting in their bond. He told her that they needed help breaking the bond because he wasn’t powerful enough to do it himself. Lance stayed quiet next to Keith, aware that Keith seemed a bit on edge. When Keith finished, the other pair pondered the authenticity of Keith’s story. 

 

“I can help you to my best ability, but I’m afraid I wouldn't be able to break your bond. Whoever trapped you in the charm would be the only one to break the bond because they were the one to form it between you two.” She informed them. Keith had had a feeling that this all seemed to easy, of course they were going to have to track down his captor and somehow convince them to break their bond.

 

“Well, that’s going to be difficult seeing as the witch that trapped me is dead.” Keith said angrily. 

 

“Who was it?” The orange haired man asked curiously. 

 

“Zarkon.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic is my baby I love it so much! Like, I've never rewritten scenes just because they didn't flow right but for this I really wanted everything to read smoothly. If there's any typos you notice feel free to tell me.
> 
> The title may change because I don't love the current one. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

Keith and Lance sat in the witch’s, who had introduced herself as Allura, living room. It turned out that Allura and her familiar, Coran, lived in the apartment above the cafe. They had opened the cafe almost forty years ago because they didn’t want to seclude themselves from humans like most witches do. They had been bonded for three centuries. 

 

Allura had told Keith that her father had found out about Zarkon trading familiars and had tried to stop him, but Zarkon had killed him. Keith had heard about a group of witches taking Zarkon down when he had gone to the other realm, he had been happy about that. Though Keith had been imprisoned, he had been able to travel to his other realm, a spirit world of some sort, a few times. It took more magic than he had been willing to use for more than a few visits. Keith had gathered intel during his short visits, but it wasn’t much.  Now, as horrible as Zarkon had been, Keith wished he was still alive. He ironically was their only way to break the bond from what they could tell.

 

“We’re just stuck in this bond then? No other way to break it?” Lance asked, making sure he had understood correctly. 

 

“I’m looking into it, so far that’s what it seems like.” Alura confirmed with a sad shake of her head. She was skimming through books at lightning speed, looking for any other way. Keith hadn’t said much since Allura had broke the news and he realized this was all hopeless. He liked Lance, saw something special in him, but he didn’t want to be stuck with him forever without a choice. He was sure Lance didn’t want to be stuck with him either. 

 

“Aha!” Coran yelled from his corner of the room, holding up an old book. The pages looked like they would flake into dust at any moment. All eyes in the room looked to Coran due to his outburst. 

 

“I believe there’s another way to break the bond! Because magic is passed through a parent to their child, I think it’s possible that Zarkon’s son could break the bond. His son would have his father’s magic, so I think the responsibility of the bond could have also been passed on.” Coran grinned and Lance felt the tension in him release. When Lance looked at Keith and Allura, he realized he maybe shouldn’t feel to relieved.

 

“That fucking asshole.” Keith muttered. Yeah, maybe Lance shouldn’t start feeling too hopeful about the situation. 

 

Allura groaned and dropped the book in her hands to the ground. She had dealt with Lotor more than enough times. He had tried to create some sort of peace treaty with her when he first took over Zarkon’s business, because he was afraid she would retaliate for her own father’s death. Her father, Alfor, had attempted to stop Zarkon, but his attempt was fruitless. When she had refused and told him she didn’t want to be associated with him he got really pissy and kept showing up out of the blue to bother her. Finally, she put up a shield around the house she had been living in at the time to keep him away from her. Allura felt awful for Keith and Lance, but she wasn’t sure she was ready to have to deal with Lotor once again. Allura briefed over her past with Lotor for Keith and Lance. 

 

“Keith, I can give you some of my quintessence for now, seeing as Lance can’t.” Allura changed the subject. Lance knew that Allura hadn’t meant that in any other way than to be friendly, but it made Lance feel like he wasn’t helpful at all. Lance was aware that he probably would just get in the way if he tried to assist with any of this, but he kind of wished he could do more. He felt bad that he was just letting everyone else do all the work. 

 

“That actually would be great, I’m not sure how long the mice were going to last for me.” Keith said and he heard Coran snicker from the corner.

 

“Y-you didn’t mention you used mice…” Allura looked almost horrified. “I have pet mice.”

 

“Sorry.” Keith smiled a little from Coran’s amusement with the situation. Allura led Keith into a different room and Lance was left alone with Coran. 

 

“Do you actually think this Lotor guy will break the bond?” Lance asked Coran, desperate for a positive answer. He nervously tapped his fingers along his thighs. 

 

“I’ve met with Lotor only a dozen or so times and I cannot lie and say he is a pleasant man. I think he is better than his father was, since he stopped selling familiars, but he is still in some fairly shady business. I think that Lotor is full of surprises and there’s a possibility that he will be willing to break your bond. I also think that there’s a possibility he’ll refuse to and things may take a turn for the worse.” Coran replied honestly. Lance nodded, he was unsure whether that made him feel better or worse. 

 

“Lotor has a lot of people that support him, but that’s because he can’t support himself. Before I became Allura’s familiar, I was acquainted with one of Zarkon’s familiars, Sendak. Sendak was quite the gossip, he let slip that Lotor was not very powerful and Zarkon wished for a better heir.” That made Lance feel a small twinge of hope. 

 

…

 

Keith thanked Allura for her quintessence, but held her back in the room away from Lance and Coran. He still had some questions for her. 

 

“Have you heard of a human and familiar bonding before?” Keith hated to admit that Allura had much more than knowledge than him. He had been imprisoned for too long and even with his few visits to his other realm, he had gained little knowledge. 

 

“Not that I know of, no. I could ask around?” Allura offered and Keith shook his head. 

 

“That won’t be necessary, I was just curious about something Lance told me. When I did a location spell to find you, he said he had been able to see my magic… I know only magic users can see other’s magic when it’s in use and I honestly was alarmed when he told me. I have no idea if this is just part of the bond or… well if he can use magic and isn’t aware of it.” Keith conceded and watched Allura for her reaction. She looked kind of puzzled but also thoughtful. 

 

“It would make more sense if he had magic, a human having the ability to bond with a familiar is quite plainly unheard of… a human seeing a familiar’s magic even more so. Have you asked him?” Allura shifted from one foot to the the other, she tried not to be worried about Lance and Keith somehow tricking them. She hadn’t sensed any magic from Lance, but witchcraft was an ever growing craft, new spells could be created and old discovered. She wouldn’t doubt that there was a way to conceal one’s magic. Allura wanted to trust the pair, but there was a voice in the back of her head warning her to stay on guard. 

 

“Kind of, when I was first released he had no clue about any of this, he also said he didn’t know of any other witches in his family.” Keith noticed Allura’s anxiousness, he hoped she wouldn’t change her mind about helping him and Lance. They wouldn’t be able to do any of this alone. 

 

“I’m not sure why he’s able to see your magic, it definitely could be the bond. We could test this theory, I could use my magic in front of him and ask him if he can see it… But, there’s still a possibility that the bond to you allows him to see all magic.” Allura noted and Keith thought about it. He finally nodded in agreement and said a quick “Okay”. Allura turned to leave and Keith stopped her once again. 

 

“I had something else to ask you, I’m sorry I’m asking so much of you, I just can’t ask Lance for more than he’s given me. I feel bad that he’s gotten caught up in all of this mess. There was another familiar that got caught when I did, he was like a brother to me. I haven’t been able to find him on the other realm and I’m worried he could still be caught. I know Zarkon wanted him to be one of his familiars… he had told me that Zarkon had summoned him and he had refused. Is there a way you could do a location spell to help me find him. I’ll repay you somehow, I just don’t really have anything right now.” Keith pleaded. Keith shuddered at the thought of Shiro being Zarkon’s familiar, even for the short time he had still been alive after they had been captured. 

 

If Zarkon had been successful in making Shiro his familiar, Keith wondered what had happened to Shiro. He would have been released from his bond with Zarkon when he was killed, but why hadn’t he been able to find Shiro since? Keith had a terrible feeling about Shiro’s wellbeing. 

 

“I’ll help, location spells are good to practice anyway. We can find out if Lance can see my magic then, too.” She suggested.

 

“No! No, I really don’t want Lance to even know about this, really, the less involved he is the better. I just want him to be able to go back to a normal life.” Keith frowned. 

 

“Fine. It’s very kind of you to be thinking about Lance, but lies will come back to you. Be careful not to keep too much from him, you may find that you’ll regret it later.” 

 

...

 

“I know some people that may be able to help, I’ll contact them to see if they’ll come by tomorrow. We’ll see you two tomorrow.” Allura smiled and ushered the pair out the door. She had Coran wrap up a few things for Lance from the cafe downstairs. 

 

They had spent the afternoon discussing Lotor and researching more about bonds, in hopes of finding a way to break Lance and Keith’s bond without Lotor. They come up with nothing to help them and Allura had cut them off, saying they needed some outside help. She managed to convince Keith that taking their time with this would end up benefiting them and Lance had to agree. He really didn’t want to get killed by some witch just because he had accidentally formed some soul bond with Keith. 

 

Keith and Lance headed back to Lance’s car and started the drive back to Lance’s apartment. Lance pulled out a muffin from the little take-out bag Coran had given him. It was about three in the afternoon, so the traffic wasn’t horrible. Lance glanced over at Keith periodically, checking that the dark haired boy was doing alright. 

 

“So, that was not what I expected from a witch.” Lance spoke up. 

 

“Did you think she would be wearing some ridiculous pointy black hat and have moles all over her face?” Keith chuckled. 

 

“No!” Lance’s voice raised in defense, “I just didn’t expect her to be so nice.” 

 

“Honestly, me neither. I thought she was going to tell us to get lost.” Keith’s amusement drained. He truly thought she would be reluctant to help them, especially after Allura informed Keith and Lance of her history with Lotor. She was his only aid in finding Shiro. He was so appreciative of Allura and Coran. 

 

“I didn’t realize it would take so long to take quintessence, it took only a few minutes with the mice.” Lance mentioned and Keith tensed. 

 

“Yeah, it’s a different process when you take from a witch. Sacrificed animals are much easier because there isn’t any concern about leaving them with enough quintessence to stay alive.” Keith said, not bringing up his and Allura’s conversation afterwards. He wasn’t exactly lying, he told himself, just leaving some stuff out. It was fine. 

 

“Oh shit,” Lance gasped. 

 

“What?” Keith curiously looked over at Lance. 

 

“I completely forgot I had class tonight.” Lance answered shortly, which was odd for him. Keith had started getting used to Lance’s rambling. 

 

“I’ll definitely be back in time, it just makes me a little frazzled when forget about things until the last minute.” Lance seemed to have relaxed a little compared to his initial shock. 

 

“Tell me about school, it’s been so long since I’ve been in a classroom setting.” Keith could see Lance’s mind shift gears and his face brightened. 

 

“Okay, but only if you tell me about magic school later.” Lance grinned. Keith laughed a little at Lance but hastily agreed. The tan boy started rambling off about why he wanted to be a veterinarian, his favorite animals, and college. Keith smiled, encouraging Lance to continue. Keith was tired of talking about witch stuff, he wanted the attention on something else and Lance took his bait with barely any effort from Keith. 

 

This also brought Lance to remember he had another class the next morning at eight till eleven. Keith quickly was realizing that Lance was not good at remembering scheduling. Lance had gotten both Allura and Coran’s numbers and would have to let them know what time him and Keith would return to the cafe the upcoming day. Lance told Keith he was free to do anything in his apartment when he was gone, he could also leave the apartment but Lance was concerned that Keith would get lost wandering around. Keith assured Lance that he wouldn’t be leaving the apartment so he wouldn’t get lost. 

 

They got back to the apartment and Lance spent the the hour before he had to leave for class getting his things together, eating, and resisting the urge to go on his phone so it could charge. Lance set Keith up with netflix, which took longer than Lance had anticipated because he forgot that he had to basically explain the whole concept of tv to him. Before he knew it, the hour was gone and Lance was leaving for class. 

 

It felt odd to be doing such a normal thing for Lance after the past two days of abnormal. He was actually kind of grateful for class, it gave him some time to focus on something else. Lance was feeling so stressed and scared about this whole Lotor deal. Lance had picked up that seeking out Lotor could be pretty dangerous. He also couldn’t help but think about the bond every so often. He was linked to Keith, Lance may not be getting all the crazy vibes that Keith was, but he could feel it. He was hyper aware of Keith while they were in the same room, they almost felt closer than they really were. If Lance were picking up on these subtleties, he wondered how it would be if he actually were a witch. 

 

…

 

Keith struggled to turn the tv off, he was too engrossed in what Lance had put on for him. It was some show about doctors that Lance had apparently watched all ten ‘seasons’, Keith still didn’t quite understand what seasons were, of five times. Keith had to admit it was funny. He eventually was able to pull himself together and shut the tv off. 

 

Now that Keith had a bit more energy, he was willing to take a longer trip to the other realm to try and find out about Shiro. To go to the other realm, his physical body would stay on this dimension and he would go into a coma-like state. His conscious would travel to the other realm and he had another body there. He leaned back on the couch and prepared himself for his journey.

 

…

 

“I’m back,” Lance opened the front door and stepped into the apartment. He kicked his shoes off and walked over to the kitchen. He saw the back of Keith’s head leaning back on the couch and noticed the tv was off. Lance set his bag down on the kitchen counter and stepped over to the couch. 

 

“Hey, you awake?” Lance poked Keith’s shoulder and leaned over the couch to look at Keith’s face. Keith’s eyes were closed and he hadn’t responded at all to poke. 

 

“C’mon Keith, you don’t want to sleep in jeans,” Lance nudged the other boy’s shoulder again, and no response. Now, Lance grew up living with six other siblings, so what he did next was not that big of a deal. Lance lifted Keith’s eyelid and stumbled back with a yelp. Keith’s eye was black, like supernatural demon black. Keith remained unmoving and Lance stared at Keith in shock. What the fuck was going on?

 

Lance waited, sitting on the coffee table in front of Keith. Lance wondered how long Keith had been like this? Was he even still alive? Lance leaned forward and placed his hand over where Keith’s heart should be, there was a heartbeat. Why didn’t Keith tell him about this? Lance decided it may be unsafe to move Keith and he had no idea how long he would be like this, so he got up and got his school things. Lance worked on his schoolwork distractedly, checking on Keith every few minutes. Lance was sure Keith would explain everything when he ‘woke up’.  

 

An hour or so passed and the apartment was eerily quiet. Lance didn’t want to turn on music because he wanted to be able to hear if something happened to Keith. Lance tried to focus on his work, but he found himself checking on Keith often.

 

Lance was startled awake by violent coughing coming from the couch. Lance wasn’t sure when he had fallen asleep, but he was wide awake now. He jumped up from his seat at the kitchen counter and ran over to the couch. Keith was bent over, taking heavy breaths and coughing. Lance plopped down beside Keith and rested his hand on Keith’s back. Keith peeked over at Lance through a curtain of the dark hair framing his face. Lance took note that his eyes had returned to normal. 

 

“What happened?” Lance finally asked. Keith had calmed down a little, gotten his breathing relatively even and stopped coughing. Lance’s hand remained on Keith’s back. 

 

“N-nothing, don’t worry about it.” Keith exhaled heavily and stayed leaned over.

 

“That clearly wasn’t nothing.” Lance huffed. 

 

“I said don’t worry about it.” Keith barked and Lance frowned at the venom in his voice. Lance pulled his hand back and stood up. Without a word, Lance went back to his room and shut the door this time. “He can just sleep in his jeans” Lance thought.

 

…

 

The ride to Allura and Coran’s was mostly silent, besides Lance’s music playing softer than yesterday. Lance had gone to his class that morning without saying goodbye and they left almost right after he got home. Keith didn’t make any attempts to diffuse the tension and neither did Lance. Lance was stubborn, he was just trying to help Keith, because obviously becoming unresponsive and your eyes turning black is concerning, at least in Lance’s book. 

 

Keith didn’t want to get Lance involved, plain and simple. The less Lance is involved, the easier it will be for Lance to move past this. Once they break the bond, Keith will be on his way, trying to get Shiro back, with Allura’s help. Keith stared out the window grumpily, he didn’t like this silent treatment Lance was giving him, but he was shit at apologizing. He convinced himself he would probably make it worse and resolved to just sit in silence for the car ride. 

 

When they arrived at the cafe, they went straight to the back alley and up the staircase that led into the other duo’s apartment. Coran greeted them at the door and brought them back to the sitting room they were in the previous day. Lance immediately noted that there were two new faces added to the mix.

 

“Hello, these are the friends I was talking about,” Allura started and pointed to the pair, “This is Pidge and Hunk, Pidge is witch and Hunk is familiar, not bonded together though.” 

 

Lance and Keith introduced themselves and found seats in the now kind of cramped space. Allura was teaching Pidge, apparently Pidge was way ahead in her training and sought Allura out to help her to continue excelling. Hunk was a friend of Pidge’s, his moms happened to be some of the familiars that helped take Zarkon down. Pidge and Hunk were exceptionally intelligent and had a desire to help Keith and Lance. Pidge said it was because it was an interesting experience to have under her belt and Hunk admitted that he thought it would be the right thing to help them because his mom’s were partially at fault for their situation with Lotor.

 

Keith and Lance accepted the help graciously, aware that the more help, the quicker they could solve their issue. Which, they were coming to realize, would take a while to prepare for. They knew that, first of all, Lotor wouldn’t be found with a simple location spell. He was most likely kept hidden under some fairly strong concealment spells. Allura was going to have to seek out the help of a few powerful witches to assist with a location spell. After that they would have to wait a little while before contacting him, due to him probably sensing the location spell. 

 

They were also going to have to find somethings to trade with him, he definitely wasn’t going to just break the bond if they asked him. Lotor was not really the type of person to do things out of the kindness of his heart. 

 

They additionally were going to have to prepare for some type of fight to break out, worst case scenario. They all were going to get ready for that and continue studying about bonds to make sure everything is done correctly. The group were not willing to risk all of this just to have the bond be broken incorrectly. 

 

Lance found that he got along with Hunk really well. Because Keith and Lance were driving through some rocky terrain, Lance talked to Hunk. He tried to strike up a conversation with Pidge but she brushed him off in favor of her work with Allura. Hunk was super friendly and was happy to trade information about each of their worlds. Hunk was actually only a year older than Lance, while Pidge was four years younger. 

 

Hunk had pulled Lance aside and asked if Keith were having problems. Lance didn’t realize that they had been that obvious.

 

“Kinda, Keith is hiding stuff from me, he said it's just normal stuff for him and that I didn't need to worry about it.” Lance shrugged, trying to act as though it wasn’t annoying him. 

 

“You know, when my girlfriend, Shay, and I are having a disagreement, the easiest thing to do is to talk about what’s bothering us.” Hunk said. Lance gave him a look. 

 

“Yeah, but Keith and I aren’t dating and we’ve known each other for such a short amount of time.” Lance sighed.

 

“Wait, what?!” Hunk exclaimed, startling Lance. 

 

“What?” Lance asked. 

 

“You guys aren’t…?” Hunk trailed off awkwardly. Oh! Hunk thought? No…

 

“No! We are not dating! Why would you think that?” Lance said in surprise. Pidge walked into the room at that moment, embarrassing Lance even more. 

 

“You aren’t?” Pidge piped up. 

 

“No, oh my god.” Lance groaned.

 

“It just kind of seemed like it from the vibes each of you give off about each other.” Pidge explained. 

 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lance said defensively. 

 

“Nothing, don’t worry about it.” Pidge wandered back out of the room. Lance looked to Hunk, but Hunk only shrugged.

The day flew by and Lance once again found him in a silent car with Keith. It was dark now and few cars were on the road with them. The pair had barely spared each other a few words and Lance was sick of it. He was still pretty pissed that Keith wouldn’t tell him about last night, though. Lance wanted an explanation, just a simple, ‘this is what happened, it’s totally normal’ because all Lance could think about was that Keith was in danger and he would all of a sudden go back into whatever state he was in last night. It scared him, he had only learned about magic three days ago, he needed Keith to tell him about these things so he didn’t have to be worried all the time. 

 

“Could you stop sending me all your angry vibes.” Keith spoke up against the heavy silence of the car.

 

“Sorry, can’t exactly turn off my emotions.” Lance snapped. Keith rolled his eyes at that and turned to face Lance. 

 

“What do you want me to say, huh? I said that last night was nothing, why don’t you believe me?” Keith asked. 

 

“Because it scared me! You were like, I don’t know, in a coma or something! It was freaky.” Lance argued.

 

“Lance, I’m not human. Things are different, I have abilities that you don’t. Just because something I did creeped you out doesn’t mean it’s not normal for me. I just don’t feel like getting into it, it’s personal, okay?” Keith spoke slowly. Lance hated that what Keith was saying kind of made sense. He didn’t like that Keith was keeping things from him, but he supposed that he wasn’t about to go and pour his soul out to Keith any time soon. 

 

“Fine, whatever.” Lance waved him off, “Can I actually send you my emotions? I know you can sense them or whatever, but I can like send you bad vibes?”

 

“In a sense? I’m not sure how a human could focus that kind of power, but witches can. Like if my witch were hurt, they could send that feeling to me so I knew they were in trouble. I didn’t think you would be able to, it seems like you weren’t trying to though, it just happened.” Keith replied. 

 

“Huh, that’s neat.” Lance nodded. Lance was glad they had moderately solved their little fight easily. He may not be exactly happy with the outcome, but he felt like Keith would let him know if he actually were in danger. Well, he at least hoped Keith would. 

 

Lance realized he really didn’t know much about Keith. For all Lance knew, Keith could be hiding tons of things from him. Lance wasn’t saying he was an open book, but he wouldn’t keep stuff from Keith if he thought it was important. Lance felt like whatever happened last night was important, he didn’t believe that it was “nothing”, but he was just going to have to trust Keith. 

 

They got back to Lance’s apartment at about eleven that night. Lance was exhausted and bid Keith goodnight after setting the other boy up for the night. Lance settled in for the night and yawned widely. He didn’t know why he was so tired, he hadn’t done anything too extraneous that day. Lance wrapped himself up in his comforter and found himself falling asleep easily. 

 

…

 

_ Lance stood in a well lit room, well, well lit for the only light coming from candles.  Lance walked around the room curiously, running his hand over the wood of the table and squinting at the single painting on the wall. He noticed the door and attempted to leave the house, but found that as soon he stepped out the door, he was brought back to the room. He tried to leave three times before giving up. He sat down at one the chairs at the table and leaned his head back to look up at the ceiling. He was surprised to see that there was a loft instead. Lance looked around the room again and realized that there was a ladder in one of the corners of the room. He walked over to it and tried to climb up it, but when he reached the top he was brought back to the room below.  _

 

_ Lance angrily sat down at the chair again. What was going on? He rested his head in his hands and rubbed his temples. Where was he? Why couldn’t he leave this room? Was he dreaming? He didn’t remember going to sleep, but he also didn’t remember traveling here. He was startled by the sound of the door opening and he jumped up, knocking the chair over. A tall man walked in, he was bulky and was carrying a few canvas bags. He had dark black hair and looked of asian descent.  _

 

_ “I-I’m sorry I’m in your house! I don’t know what’s going on!” Lance yelped and stepped back into the center of the room. The man didn’t even spare him a glance and walked past Lance to the table where he set the bags. Lance’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion at not only the man ignoring him, but that the chair was upright again, pushed up to the table as if he had never sat there. The man had left the front door open and Lance walked toward it. Maybe he could leave if since this man had been the one to open the door? Plus, the man had come from the outside, there had to be a way to leave. Lance unfortunately was brought back to the room as soon as he stepped over the threshold.  Then, another person was entering the room. Keith! _

 

_ “Hey! Keith! What’s going on? Who is this guy?” Lance asked desperately. Lance felt a chill of despair when Keith ignored him to. Keith shut the door behind him and walked up to the other man with a smile.  _

 

_ “That old bat a few miles down gave me four rabbits to find her lost dog. When I told her it had drowned in the swamp, she still gave me them? God, she’s psycho.” Keith laughed and set two lifeless rabbits on the table beside the bags.  _

 

_ “You said four?” The other man asked and Keith looked away sheepishly.  _

 

_ “I couldn’t wait, sorry.” Keith pulled the chair Lance had sat in out and took a seat. Lance continued to watch the interaction inquisitively.  The other man sighed and rolled his eyes.  _

 

_ “You never can, I don’t know why I even questioned it.” The man chuckled and opened one of the bags but paused. Keith started to say something, but the man shushed him with a raise of his hand. Keith froze and Lance saw him tense. Lance hadn’t heard anything…  _

 

_ The door slammed open and Keith yelled in alarm. The man pushed Keith out of the way and stood in front of him, a barrier between Keith and the intruder.  _

 

_ “Don’t do this.” The man said. Lance noticed the dark glow forming at the tips of the man’s finger that started to spread down his arms. “Take me, not him, none of this is his fault.”  _

 

_ “You think I care? Stand down, Shiro, before any of us do something we’ll regret.” The intruder said. Lance looked him over. He was larger than the other man, Shiro? He smirked and Lance caught a flash of pointed teeth. Lance shook with fear and wasn’t surprised to see Keith in a similar state.  _

 

_ “We can take him, Takashi.” Keith said quietly, placing a hand on the man’s upper arm. Shiro? Takashi? Lance was confused.  _

 

_ “My boy, if you think I don’t have this house surrounded then you’re more foolish than I had thought.” The intruder laughed, it was an unbelievably creepy laugh. Lance moved back so his back was pressed against on the walls of the room.  _

 

_ “Please, leave Keith out of this.” Takashi’s shoulders slumped and Lance watched as the glow disappeared. The intruder smirked again.  _

 

_ “How would I keep you compliant then? I’ve thought this through, let’s all leave peacefully, shall we?” The intruder beckoned them forward and gestured to the door. Before Lance could blink, Keith was pushing Takashi out of the way, his hands glowing red with what Lance recognized as Keith’s magic. There was a shout from the intruder and then everything went black.  _

 

…

 

Lance bolted up in bed, heaving heavily. What the hell had just happened?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope this chapter was as interesting as the last! Also, please let me know if there's any typos I missed when editing this, it's super helpful!
> 
> Thanks for reading and the next chapter will be up within a week!


	3. Chapter 3

Lance felt like he hadn’t been breathing the entire time he had been asleep. His chest ached and he had a headache. He vaguely heard Keith yell “what the fuck” through the ringing in his ears. Lance felt like he was dying.. Or having a panic attack. He could barely catch his breath. He took notice that Keith was now beside him, but he couldn’t focus on anything other than the pain in his chest. What had happened?

 

“Lance can you hear me?” Keith was panicked, Lance noticed Keith’s hands on his shoulders and wondered how long they had been there? Minutes passed and Lance counted the seconds in his head, trying to ground himself. Keith was talking to him, but Lance couldn’t make out the words he was saying. 

 

Finally, Lance felt like he could breathe again. His head and chest still ached for a reason that Lance was unsure of. He had only had a dream about Keith and some random dudes, why was he reacting this way?

 

“How did you do it? Tell me? Quit lying to me about you not being a witch!” Keith’s voice raised at the end. Lance looked at Keith questioningly. What made Keith think he was a witch now?

 

“I-I didn’t do anything… I’m not a witch?” Lance stuttered out, his voice was a little raspy. He reached for the glass of water beside his bed and took a few large gulps. Keith glared at him the entire time. 

 

“Stop lying! Invading someone else’s dreams and memories isn’t part of the bond, Lance. I hope you don’t think I’m actually stupid enough that I wouldn’t know that. You couldn’t just accept that I didn’t want to tell you something and you went ahead and found out against my will. I can’t believe that you fooled me with this absurd story that you’re ‘human and just happened to find a trapped familiar on accident’. Fucking bullshit.” Keith had dropped his hands away from Lance and was pacing through his whole spiel. Lance simply listened with wide eyes. 

 

“Wouldn’t you have been able to tell that I was lying?! I have no idea what’s happening, okay? I thought-”

 

“Save it! I don’t know if you’re powerful enough that you can hide your lies or that you’re so weak that the bond is barely holding together by a thread and isn’t working properly, but you’re lying! Stop lying to me! You can’t pretend that that didn’t just happen, that you didn’t just go into my mind when I was dreaming and watched my memories,” Keith yelled. Lance was utterly confused. He didn’t know what he had done. 

 

“Keith, I wasn’t trying to do that. I really am not a witch, I haven’t been lying to you. But you’re really one to talk about lies. You didn’t tell me that when you were captured that you were with someone.” Lance argued back and if looks could kill, Lance would be dead from Keith’s scowl.

 

“It wasn’t important, don’t try to switch the blame to me. You’re a lying bastard, Lance McClain. When we break this bond I hope I never see you again,” Lance yelped as Keith disappeared. Lance jumped out of bed and looked around the apartment, but Keith was gone. 

 

The sun was just rising out the window and Lance remembered that he had class at seven thirty that morning. He didn’t have enough time to go out looking for Keith, he only hoped that he was at Allura and Coran’s. He vowed he would go there and fix things, somehow convince Keith that he really wasn’t lying, that he had had no intention of entering Keith’s dream, that he had no idea how he even had done so. His chest and head still ached. 

 

…

 

Keith collapsed in Allura and Coran’s living room with a flurry of magic. Tears stung at the corners of his eyes that he hastily wiped away. Allura had been sitting in one of the comfy chairs of the room and abruptly stood up at his entrance, prepared to fight. When she realized it was only Keith, she relaxed a little. 

 

“What’s wrong? Are you hurt? Is Lance hurt?” She asked quickly and Keith shook his head. 

 

“I’m fine, Lance is fine… though I wish he wasn’t,” Keith muttered. Allura’s eyes narrowed at the additional comment. 

 

“What happened?” Allura crossed her arms, she sat back down in the chair. Keith wobbled over to the couch, he was a little shaky from his abrupt use of magic that he was unpracticed with. He also sat down, but he glared down at the ground. 

 

“Lance has been lying this entire time, he’s a witch and-” “What!”There was a crash of glass breaking. Keith and Allura’s gazes both whipped over to the doorway where the crash came from. Coran had dropped a mug and the contents had splattered around him. With a wave of her hand, Allura used her magic to clean the mess in an instant. 

 

“He was mad at me yesterday because I had gone to my other realm the night before last and was still there when he got back from class, or wherever he went. He acted like he didn’t know what it was and got angry that I wouldn’t tell him, that’s why he was all pissy at me when we were here. We made up but I still hadn’t told him. So last night he used his magic to access my memories while I was sleeping. He made me relive the moment I was captured and lost Shiro.” Keith explained. 

 

“What did he say when you guys woke up?” Allura asked. From the look on her face, Keith could tell she strongly disapproved of that type of magic. 

 

“He acted like he didn’t know what was going on! He tried to convince me that he wasn’t using magic and it had somehow happened!” Keith said angrily. 

“And then you left?” Allura questioned and Keith confirmed. Coran looked off out the window, he was more than surprised at the story Keith was telling. From the times he had talked to Lance, he had thought the younger man was kind and sincere with his actions. How had he fooled all them so well?

 

“You’re welcome to stay with us until we can have the bond broken, what Lance has done is unacceptable.” Allura said firmly, she crossed the room and patted Keith’s shoulder. She then left the room, leaving Coran and Keith together. 

 

“Why hadn’t we been able to sense his magic?” Coran wondered out loud and Keith shrugged. 

 

“I don’t know, he probably had some way to mask it. He thinks he’s above us, that we’d be too oblivious to notice. I just don’t understand what was in it for him?” Keith replied. 

 

…

 

Though Lance was hurt by Keith’s accusations, that Keith didn’t believe him, he couldn’t miss class. He yearned to just drive straight to Coran and Allura’s and find out if Keith was there, but he couldn’t afford to get behind in school. He imagined he would have to miss classes sometime in the future to get the bond sorted out and he felt like he should give Keith some time to cool off anyways. 

 

He distractedly made it through his first class and was nearly finished with his second when the pain in his head came back. Even though he had taken ibuprofen, the dull ache had stayed, and now was as present as before the medication. His professor’s voice sounded far away, his classmates appeared oddly to him and his vision started to leave him. Lance panicked, he tried to stand and collapsed back in his seat. He blacked out. 

 

Memory like flashes ran through his brain in his unconsciousness, he was there but he had no recollection of it. They felt different than dreams, like they had really happened and he just didn’t remember. People he didn’t recognize spoke to him in a language he couldn’t understand. Lance was confused, his mind felt over-stimulated. 

 

It felt like days had passed, but when he woke up, he was in the nurse’s office and it had only been twenty minutes. She gave him water and a snack and told him to go home and rest. He got on the road and headed for Allura’s instead. Something was happening to him and he knew it had something to do with the bond. There had to be a way that Allura, Coran, or Keith could tell that he wasn’t lying to them. He needed their help, something was wrong with him, something had changed after the last night. 

 

When he arrived at the cafe, he was starting to regret not listening to the nurse. He felt physically tired, when he tried to stand up to get out of his car, his legs shook with the effort of holding himself up. His vision began to blur from the exertion, but he needed to get to Keith, to talk to him, to explain himself. Lance stood again and began walking to the back of the cafe, he saw stars with every step. He wasn’t sure what was happening, he only hoped that if he reached Keith, they would be able to figure it out together. He had just barely made it to the alleyway leading to the back of the cafe when the edges of his vision had gotten fuzzy. The last thing he remembered before passing out was thinking that he just needed to Keith. 

 

…

 

Keith was sitting on the couch in Allura and Coran’s living room when he felt it. In the back of his mind he felt Lance. Irritably, he ignored the calling of Lance’s presence. It was forgotten for a few minutes until Lance crashed to the front of his thoughts and Keith felt Lance’s pain. The pain of slamming into concrete and Keith became all too aware that Lance was nearby. Though Keith was still angry at Lance and he thought for a brief moment that if Lance just died Keith would be out of this whole mess, Keith hopped up from the couch. He had been alone in the living room and he bolted out of the apartment. 

 

Keith wasn’t sure exactly where Lance was, but it immediately became apparent that didn’t matter when he spotted a small huddle of people peering down at something on the ground. Keith had an undeniable feeling that that something happened to be Lance. He ran over to the small crowd and hated the fact that he was correct. He pushed through the few people and dropped to his knees in front of Lance. 

 

“Lance?!” Keith placed his hands on Lance’s face and without considering the other people around him, focused on Lance’s mind. He knew he was being a bit of a hypocrite by the action, but it was the first thing that he had thought of. With all of his strength, he ignored the flashes of memories pouring out of Lance into him and chanted “wake up” to Lance through their subconsciouses. 

 

They were both pulled from their moment when Lance came to with a gasp. He shot up and one of his hands grasped his chest. Keith sighed in reluctant relief. The people that had been surrounding them dispersed, dazed due to Keith sending out a confusion spell the instant he had recovered from his and Lance’s moment. Without a word, Keith pulled Lance up so he was standing and supported him until he was able to dispense Lance’s heavy body onto the couch in the apartment. Lance was conscious, but barely so. 

 

“What is going on with you?” Keith asked, standing above Lance. 

 

“I don’t know. You won’t believe me, but I really don’t know.” Lance answered, he sat up a little on the couch. 

 

“I don’t understand you… I don’t understand why you’re doing this.” Keith bit his lip and looked away. 

 

“Isn’t there a way you could tell if I was lying? You’re magical for goodness sake, use magic as a lie detector or something!” Lance exclaimed. He winced at the volume of his voice. 

 

“I guess if I went into your mind… You’re more powerful than me, though, you could hide things.” Keith frowned. 

 

“He wouldn’t be able to hide anything from me. I’ll do it.” The pair hadn’t noticed that Allura was leaning against the doorframe to the kitchen. Their gazes both shot over to her. Keith sighed but nodded. 

 

“Okay.” Lance agreed. 

…

 

Lance found himself lying on the carpet, his head touching Allura’s. She had instructed him so far, now he had to simply clear his mind. When he began to feel impatient, he felt it. His eyes closed and it was like he was watching a movie of his life. He didn’t have many memories from before he was about seven and even those after were not as sharp as his recent ones. This went on for a while, he tried not to mentally cringe as Allura went further and further back. Couldn’t she tell there was no magic in his past? That he wasn’t lying, that he was just as confused as they were? He felt a sharp pain as she attempted to breach memories from before he was five and they kept coming up blank. Then, the barrier shielding the lost memories was broken. Lance watched a collection of unfamiliar scenes. 

 

...

 

_ “People will want to take you away from us, we won’t let them. You have so much potential, I know you’ll grow up to be even more wonderful than you are now. Look! Here he comes!” A woman that his younger self recognized as his mother spoke to him. Lance, in his current state, had no recollection of the woman.  _

 

_ Lance was watching a small little burrow in the ground and the head of a ground squirrel popped up. His younger self squealed and that resulted in blue sparks erupting from the palms of his hands, frightening the small animal back into its hole. _

 

_ “Oh, you scared him. That’s okay, Lance, I didn’t have much control at your age either. It’s just something you learn as you grow.” The woman, his mother (?), smiled down at him.  _

 

…

 

_ “Get Lance out of here! I thought there would be more time, you need to take him now!” The woman, his mother, yelled. The stranger from before was beside her and he nodded. He grabbed Lance from her embrace and they were walking out the front door.  _

 

_ As they left, Lance saw flashes of light in the sky, it wasn’t lightning, something else. Magic. The house they were leaving was struck by bolts of magic hailing down. The stranger carrying his past self was running into a shadowy forest. He saw the house go up in flames.  _

 

...

 

_ “Where are you taking me?” A younger Lance asked. A tall figure held his hand and led him to a car. The figure was the same as the one before. Where was his Mom? _

 

_ “I’m bringing you to your new home. You’ll like it there.” The person strapped him into a car seat in the back and got into the driver’s seat.  _

 

_ “I wanna go home!” Lance shouted, his throat clenched and his lips trembled.  _

 

_ “Your home is gone now.” Lance cried and screamed, he disliked this stranger, he wanted his Mom.  _

 

…

 

Lance and Allura both sat up at the same time. Allura scooted away from him quickly until he back was against the couch. Lance realized the people he had seen when he had passed out before were his real family. He’d been living a lie his entire life, what had happened? 

 

“What’s going on? What did you see?” Keith asked impatiently. He didn’t want to get close to Lance, even in his state of distress. Allura had obviously found something alarming. 

 

“H-he wasn’t lying.” Allura stated. 

 

“He’s not magic?” Keith said, surprised. 

 

“He is magic… He wasn’t lying because he didn’t know. He’s the son of Florella Sanchez.” Allura hesitated at the name. 

 

“W-what… that isn’t possible. Well, maybe it’s possible but how could Lance be her son? His magic wouldn’t have been dormant for so long.” Keith was more than shocked, Coran was speechless. 

 

“Somebody she trusted took Lance, left him in the care of a non-magic family. They hid his powers within himself, he wasn’t supposed to ever know about them… your bond activated them somehow.” Allura explained. Lance was soaking in their words, feeling utterly freaked out. His family wasn’t actually his family? He was a witch? His Mom was named Florella? 

 

“Shit, Lance, are you okay? I’m sorry… I didn’t know…” Keith finally made a move to comfort Lance. He dropped down on his knees so he was at the same level as Lance and put a hand on his back. 

 

“Yeah, me neither.” Lance said dryly, “What happens now?”

 

“Well, I suppose we continue where we left off. We’ll break the bond and you two may continue however you please from then. Lance, I offer my assistance if you would like to strengthen your magic, I’m also sorry I didn’t believe you.” Allura announced. Allura got a sense that Keith of Lance needed some time alone, so she motioned for Coran to follow her into the kitchen. 

 

“So~, you’re a witch then.” Keith stated. 

 

“Yup.” Lance said. How could he have not known all this time? Did his family know, or were they under some spell too? Should he learn about his magic from Allura, or can he still live a normal life knowing he was a witch? Why was his Mom such a big deal?

 

“Lance, I know you must have a million questions right now, but there’s time for them later. I think we should go back to your apartment, for now at least. I- well, I wanted to say that I’m not going to leave after the bond is broken. I like being friends with you.” Keith said with confidence. Lance agreed, but he didn’t realize that Keith was going to grab his hand and transport them straight to Lance’s with his magic. The landed on Lance’s couch, Keith still gripping his hand. 

 

“I feel horrible about the way I treated you this morning, I owe you a bit of an explanation,” Keith paused to gauge Lance’s reaction. When Lance didn’t give any refusal, Keith continued, “What you saw in your dream, well my dream, was the day I got captured. The man with me, Shiro, he was a close friend, my family. He refused to be Zarkon’s familiar, so Zarkon captured him. Zarkon thought it would hurt Shiro more if I was captured too. I didn’t want to tell you because I thought at the time it would be best if you didn’t get to involved. I guess that doesn’t matter much anymore, seeing that you’re magic.” Keith rambled. Lance silently listened, Keith had trusted him, he was trying to look out for Lance. 

 

“It’s okay. We haven’t known each other that long, I get that you’re scared that I have some scheme. I just- I guess because I trusted you I assumed that you trusted me. Don’t get me wrong, I get that we haven’t known each other for very long and it may be silly, but you hadn’t given me any reason not to trust you. I just wonder what reason I gave you to not trust me?” Lance admitted. 

 

“Lance-”

 

“No, it’s fine, okay? You don’t need to explain anything to me.” Lance shook his head. 

 

“It’s not fine! I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions, it wasn’t right of me. I’ve just been so scared all those years I was trapped, it felt too good to be true. I was waiting for something to go wrong, for you to betray me, because I’m still scared of being imprisoned again, but I know now that you won’t do that. Don’t let me treat you like that again, you don’t deserve that.” Keith rambled on, feeling exposed from the confession. 

 

“Thank you, Keith.”

 

“I met your Mom once. Florella was a very kind person. She was really powerful, everyone knew her, I guess that’s why she had tried to protect you. People envy power, they try to steal it for their own, she was probably scared that if something happened to her you would end up in the wrong hands.” Keith changed the subject, ”Sorry, I understand if that’s a sensitive topic-”

 

“It isn’t. I don’t remember her, I now have a few memories, but I don’t really feel a connection to her. She may be my Mother, but she isn’t my Mom. I wouldn’t mind knowing more about her or my Father that I guess I may never know seeing as he wasn’t in my memories. It’s okay for you to talk about her.” Lance interrupted him. A silence fell over the pair, Keith noticed that he was still holding Lance’s hand, but he didn’t let go. 

 

“I want to help you find Shiro.” Lance announced. 

 

“Lance no, I can’t let you do that. It’s probably going to be risky, you can’t put yourself in more danger for me.” Keith shook his head. 

 

“I want to, I care about you. I get easily attached, okay? You’re my friend, and when a friend needs help, I’m there to assist to my best ability.” Lance leaned back on the couch. He looked really tired. 

 

“You aren’t going to give up on this, are you?” Keith chuckled. 

 

“Nope,” Lance shook his head. Keith groaned and leaned back too, he looked over at Lance with a small smile. Somehow, this day had been more eventful than their first day together. 

 

…

 

Weeks passed and Lance learned more and more about his past. Allura helped him delve deeper into his memories to discover more secrets of his past. She also began to teach him basic spells at his request. He was still very out of control with his magic, he hadn’t been able to perform a successful spell. Allura told him that he would get the hang of it eventually. Keith always scuttled off into a corner with Pidge and Hunk to work on the Lotor situation while Lance and Allura did this. 

 

Allura had tried to use location spells to find Shiro, but they never worked correctly. She got vastly different results every time she tried. Keith pretended it was fine, but Lance could tell he was hurting. 

 

Lance, quite frankly, felt useless. Everyone else was able to work towards the bond breaking and Lance was just as much help as he had been before they found out he was a witch. Keith told him his compliance was enough help and that he shouldn’t worry himself about it, but Lance couldn’t help himself. He was only getting in the way of the other’s work. At night, he would lift his shirt up and stare at the tattoo on his ribcage and think about everything that had happened since he bought the necklace. Everyone was putting so much effort into helping Keith and Lance and Lance could offer was his encouragement. He hated how little he was able to do, sometimes he thought it would be better if he just stayed home. 

 

Eventually he did just that. He would make excuses, like that he had homework to work on, that he needed to go grocery shopping, things that weren’t true. Keith saw through his lies and ignored them at first. Keith was aware that Lance was going through a lot with the discoveries of his past, he thought he should give Lance time to himself. 

 

When it had reached the point that Lance hadn’t gone to Allura and Coran’s in almost two weeks, Keith drew the line. He called out to Lance,asking him if he was coming, and the expected response of no was yelled back from Lance’s bedroom. Keith liked to think that over the past weeks, he had gotten to know Lance fairly well. They were close, bond aside, Keith liked having Lance as a friend. 

 

“Why won’t you come with?” Keith confronted Lance. He leaned against the door frame to Lance’s bedroom. Lance was laying on his stomach, scrolling through his phone. Keith tapped his foot. 

 

“It’s just not a good day, really busy.” Lance responded, not taking his eyes off of the screen of his phone. 

 

“What’s wrong?” Keith asked. 

 

“Nothing.” Lance frowned. Keith gave him a pointed look, hoping Lance would get that he knew that was a lie. “I just don’t want to get in the way of you guys.”

 

“What do you mean?” Keith questioned. 

 

“It’s just, when I’m there I end up sitting on the couch on my phone or distracting Allura. It’s better if I just stay home and let you guys do your thing.” Lance explained. 

 

“Lance,” Keith sighed. He pushed off from the wall and walked up to Lance’s bed. He sat down next to Lance. “You aren’t getting in the way, or distracting Allura. Allura offered to teach you and wants to. We all like when you’re at the apartment, we want you there. I want you there.” 

 

“You don’t have to say that to make me feel better-”

 

“Lance. You know I’m telling the truth.” Keith glared. Lance gave in. Keith wasn’t going to let Lance belittle himself. It made sense that he wasn’t great at magic yet, his magic had been concealed for the last however many years. Kids don’t start knowing how to do spells perfectly, so there was no reason that Lance, as a beginner, should be able to either.  

 

“Yeah, sorry.”

 

“Don’t apologize for your feelings, just tell me what’s on your mind next time instead of avoiding Allura and Coran’s. I care about how you’re feeling and it’s much better than the guessing game I have to play when you don’t. Sure, I’ll know you’re upset, but why? I can’t tell why, you need to tell me if it’s important.” Keith instructed. Keith leaned back and lay down beside Lance. 

 

“You gonna come with today?” Keith asked and Lance nodded. Without warning, Keith grabbed Lance’s arm and grinned and Lance’s knowing disgruntled face. They transported to Coran and Allura’s, landing on the carpeted floor of the living room. Keith laughed at Lance’s surprise. 

 

“I hate when you transport me places with zero warning.” Lance tried to make his voice sound annoyed. 

 

“You love it.” Keith cackled. Keith released Lance’s arm and sat up. A few laughs fell past his lips before he calmed down. Lance secretly did love it, it was rare to see Keith so playful, due to the serious circumstances surrounding them. It made Lance happy to see Keith like this.

 

“Keith? Lance? Come in the kitchen!” Allura shouted. Keith and Lance shared a look of curiosity and they made their way into the kitchen. Allura, Coran, Pidge, and Hunk were all sitting at the table in there. Allura had a cup of tea in front of her that she carefully took a sip of. 

 

“Great to see you, Lance. I was starting to think you were avoiding us and you’ve come in time to hear the good news! We’re ready, everything is set.” Allura said happily.  

 

“We’re ready?” Lance repeated in awe. 

 

“Yeah, the location spell will be performed tonight, after that, we go pay Lotor a little visit.” Allura confirmed. Lance felt a burst of excitement and fear and he realized that they weren’t only his feelings. He looked over to Keith and saw that they shared a similar expression. Lance hoped the future held smooth sailing for the sake of him and his friends. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter is a little shorter than the past two, had kind of a busy week but I'm excited for the next chapter! There's probably only two or three chapters left of this! 
> 
> Thanks to all of those who are reading this!
> 
> Next chapter in the next week.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Long time no see! Finally, here is the last chapter to this mini-fic! I edited the last chapters a little, so there are some changes that you may want to go read. Also! I added some tags because there is a very short torture scene that you may not want to read. 
> 
> By the way, it is 2:30 am rn and I'm sorry for any errors. I will read this over tomorrow, but I am just too tired and I wanted to post this! Haha thanks for understanding

Things didn’t go quite as planned. As soon as they had finished the location spell without any results, there had been an alarmingly loud crack outside. Allura had shuddered and fell to the floor. Coran, with a dark look in his eyes, announced that the shield that had been around the cafe keeping Lotor had been broken. 

 

The group now sat in the lounge room, Allura, after regaining her composure, had gone to her room after many failed attempts at reforming the shield. They were all anxiously waiting for something to happen. Lance sat closely to Keith, hoping that no one was going to be put into danger because of his and Keith’s bond. 

 

“Well, no use staying here like sitting ducks, why don’t all you kids head home.” Coran said, walking into the living room. Pidge and Hunk gathered their things before retreating out the back door. Keith gave a weak smile to Coran and then transported them back to Lance’s apartment. 

 

They were quiet when they got back, Lance set up a movie for them to watch but Keith couldn’t focus on it. The events of that night had been strange, to say the least. Allura was a powerful witch, she should have been able to locate Lotor without too much struggle, considering the amount of preparations and precautions that they had taken beforehand. Lotor also shouldn’t have been able to break her protection spells and keep them open from very far away. Keith frowned and sat up, alerting Lance. 

 

“What’s wrong?” Lance asked. 

 

“I think we should put some protection spells up around your apartment, at least for tonight.” Keith said and stood up from the couch. Lane agreed and tried to be quiet for Keith to be able to concentrate. When Keith was finished, he sat back down next to Lance gracelessly.

 

“If this Lotor guy was able to break Allura’s protection spells, wouldn’t he be able to break yours too?” Lance spoke up. 

 

“Yeah, most likely. It just makes me feel better knowing that there’s a little bit of magic there.” Keith sighed. 

 

They finished the movie and then Lance retired to his bedroom, shutting the door behind him. Lance settled into bed, feeling moderately concerned about Lotor. He seemed like he was more than capable of finding them and hurting them if he pleased. 

 

Keith could feel Lance’s concern, it hurt Keith that Lance wouldn’t talk to him about it. Keith set up the couch with his blanket and pillow but then had another thought. He set some protection spells over Lance’s bedroom… just in case. He then sunk into the couch and attempted to get a small amount of sleep.

 

…

 

Weeks passed and nothing happened. Keith and Lance frequanted Allura’s still, they attempted the location spell again, but again got no results. It was nearing summer break for Lance, so he had to bucker down and study for finals. Keith spent a lot of time with Lance, reading books from Allura’s to try and catch up on what he’s missed. They got into a routine of studying together after Lance’s classes. 

 

The apartment was usually fairly quiet when they studied, Lance was kind of fidgety sometimes and would tap his pencil or hum, but other than that, quiet. That is, until the door was busted off of its hinges and a thick smoke filled the apartment. 

 

Keith yelled, feeling anxiety wash over him. He was helpless yet again, like when Shiro was taken from him. Arms restrained him and he tried to break himself free. Lance was yelling to Keith and Keith wanted to cry listening to him. Then, just like that, the smoke was gone and in front of him was Lotor, and next to Lotor was Shiro. 

 

“You summoned me? I believe?” Lotor addressed Lance, who had no idea that this was in fact Lotor. 

 

“Yeah, we did. We don’t want anyone to get hurt, you can let us go.” Keith spoke for Lance. Lance looked over to Keith and Keith felt the fear radiating off of Lance. 

 

“Hmmm… good suggestion, but I’m going to ignore it. Tell me how you used a high level location spell to find me, when neither of you have that ability from what I can tell?.” Lotor commanded. 

 

“It doesn’t matter, we really aren’t trying to start anything with you. Neither of us could anyways, you said it yourself, we aren’t at that level.” Keith responded. 

 

“Fine, but don’t try anything.” Lotor snapped motioned and the people restraining them let go. Keith glanced back and didn’t recognize the buff woman behind him, whereas the lean, tall woman behind Lance, Keith thought he had a vague recollection of. 

 

“Let’s get this over with, please explain why you felt the need to summon me here.” Lotor sighed, already wanting to be done with the situation. 

 

So Keith did explained everything from the start while Lance stayed quiet. Lance was feeling more than nervous. He hadn’t truly gotten a hold of the seriousness of the situation until his apartment was invaded. Lance had been terrified when he had been grabbed and couldn’t see where Keith was from the smoke. He was also worried about Keith. Shiro was right in front of them, Lance recognized him from Keith’s dream, and Keith hadn’t even spared Shiro a glance. If Shiro was still stuck with Lotor, why would Lotor help them?

 

“You know what, I'm feeling generous today. I'll break your bond on the condition that you stop trying to contact my familiar, it's quite bothersome.” Lotor said. 

 

“How did you-”

 

“I owe you no explanation.” Lotor stopped Keith before he could even start. Keith crossed his arms with a huff, like hell he was going to let Shiro stay with this guy.

 

“Fine.” Keith lied. 

 

“Very good, let's get this done quickly.”

 

Lotor informed the pair on how the bond breaking would go and they both cooperated. They sat together at Lance's kitchen table, Lotor at the head and the pair sitting across from each other, hand in hand. 

 

Lotor started the spell and Lance felt a tug in his chest. His body felt cold and his mind got foggy, the only clear thing being Lotor’s words. Lance wondered if this was supposed to be happening. He’s pulled from his wondering when Lotor stops. Lance opens his eyes that he hasn't noticed were closed in the first place. Lotor is staring at him, his brows furrowed in confusion.

 

“What?” Lance asked, confused also. 

 

“You lied to me!” Lotor shrieked and for the second time that night he was restrained by one of the women. Only this time, he was knocked out, not before he saw Keith elbow the woman behind him first.

 

…

 

Lance gradually came to, his eyes had to adjust to blinding white light of the room he was in. His wrists and ankles were tied to the chair he was sat in. The room looked about 8ft x 8ft and had nothing other than him in it. Lance tried to move against his restraints, but after a while his skin was sore with rope burn. He sighed and drooped into his chair, he wasn’t going anywhere. He hoped that Keith was not doing any worse than him. 

 

He wasn’t sure how long passed until the door in front of him opened, there was no way to tell the time in this room. Lotor walked in, one of the women from before following after. Lance stayed quiet, unsure what had caused Lotor to bring him here. 

 

“I’m disappointed it had to come to this Lance, truly, I am. I’m not sure why you lied to me, but it was a mistake.” Lotor sneered. Lance couldn’t recall when they lied to Lotor, was this guy insane? Lance kept his mouth shut. 

 

“No one will hurt you as long as you tell the truth from now on. Where is Florella? Where has she been hiding all these years?” Lotor asked, appearing calm. 

 

“My Mom? She’s dead, I barely remember her.” Lance kept it simple. Lotor stepped closer to Lance, flushed with immediate anger. Lance’s head turned with the impact of Lotor’s fist. 

 

“I told you to tell the truth! Tell me where Florella is!” Lotor yelled and Lance looked at him with wide eyes. His cheek had already started to throb from the punch. 

 

“I am telling the truth! All I know is that she’s dead.” Lance cried out. 

 

“Ezor.” Lotor held his hand out to the woman and she reached behind herself. She produced a thin blade out of nowhere and handed it to Lotor. He turned back to Lance and Lance cringed with fear. 

 

“Last chance, tell me where your mother is.” Lotor demanded. 

 

“She. Is. Dead.” Lance replied and closed his eyes, not wanting to know what Lotor was going to do with the knife. 

 

“I was afraid you were going to say that.” Lotor sighed and promptly jammed the blade into Lance’s thigh. Lance screamed in pain, opening his eyes to see Lotor retreating from the room. 

 

Lance was scared to look down at his wound. Yes, he wanted to be a veterinarian, but wounds on animals were way different then a wound on yourself. He took a deep breath, he had to assess the situation, see if there was anything he could do about the pain. He only hoped the knife wasn’t lodged into the artery he knew was in his leg. 

 

He glanced down and gagged. Blood was seeping out around the knife and was staining his jeans. Lance was glad that Lotor had left the knife in his thigh though, it was keeping the wound moderately closed up. He knew the only thing he could do while being tied up is to try and calm down and to keep his injured leg still. He tried to think about how he could get out of this room, then it his him. 

 

If Lance could get the knife out of his thigh, he could use it to cut his restraints. The only problem is if he can’t get out of the room, he was risking the possibility of losing a too much blood and passing out. He wished Allura had taught him some types of healing spells, that would be helpful in this situation. Lance suddenly became aware of a growing pain in his left eye. It felt like his own stab wound, but in his eye. Lance groaned and dropped his head forward, what was happening?

 

…

 

Keith felt tears fall down his face when he felt a pang in his thigh. Someone was hurting Lance he wasn’t able to do anything. It had started a few minutes ago when his cheek started to sting with a punch that hadn’t been inflicted on him. He didn’t think Lotor would end up hurting them, he was foolish. Why couldn’t they have found a different way to fix things? Now, Lance was being hurt by someone, somewhere, and Keith could do nothing about it. He was supposed to be able to do something about it. He attempted to gain some composure, maybe if he tried really hard he could contact Allura. The most he would be able to do is nag her a little bit and make her feel like something was wrong, but it was better than nothing. 

 

He breathed in and attempted to concentrate on her essence, he had been around her enough to have good grasp on her. Keith was just getting through when the door to the room he was being kept in swung open. He jumped a little, startled by the intrusion. 

 

“Your witch is refusing to talk, so it’s your turn.” Lotor announced, striding in angrily. “I’m going to ask this once, I will not give a second chance like I did for your friend. Where is Florella Sanchez?” 

 

“She’s dead.” Keith answered. 

 

Yeah, Keith had heard rumors that Florella was still alive. She was insanely powerful and no one had the same story of how she died. All he had heard was that she was ambushed at her home and no one saw her again. Keith just didn’t believe she had been hiding in the Bahamas for the however many years it has been. 

 

“I wish you guys would stop lying, I’m having to use all my good blades.” Lotor sighed and drew his arm back, following by lunging forward at Keith. Keith had nowhere to go, he was tied up. Things seemed like they were in slow motion as the blade came at him, getting closer until it plunged into his eye socket. Keith had never felt a greater pain than this. He screamed and his whole body thrashed. He saw the same ferocity of Zarkon in Lotor’s eyes before the world faded away. 

 

He was only out for a moment before he was rudely woken up by someone manhandling him. Keith groaned, his stab wound was in an immense amount of pain. 

 

“Buddy, stay with me, it’s going to be okay. We’re going to help you.” He recognized this voice.  Things were becoming clearer and he was able to focus in on the person untying him. Shiro!

 

“What’s happening? Where’s Lance?” Keith asked groggily. 

 

“You’re getting out of here, okay? We’ll get Lance.” Shiro answered shortly, focusing on the task at hand. 

 

“But what about Lotor?” 

 

“He won’t be back for a while, he’s having a bit of a fit right now.” Shiro assured him. 

 

Once Shiro had freed him from his bounds, Keith tried to get up, but was unbalanced from sitting for so long and losing the use of one of his eyes. Shiro immediately steadied him by grabbing his arm. Keith took his chance and wrapped his arms around Shiro. 

 

“I’m so glad you’re okay.” Keith admitted and felt Shiro tighten the hug. It only lasted a few moments, they could do this later when there wasn’t any impending death looming over them. 

 

“I can help you and Lance get out of here, but if Lotor catches us… I want you to leave me here, I can deal with him.” Shiro notified Keith as they made their way through a series of hallways. 

 

“I-I can’t do that Shiro. Not after I just got you back.” Keith said. He couldn’t do it. 

 

“Keith-”

 

“No. I won’t let you sacrifice yourself anymore than you already have.” Keith was not willing to compromise on this one. 

 

They continued in silence, the building they were in was eerily empty, it appeared that they were in a basement due to the lack of windows and the chill in the air. Keith’s eye was still in inexplicable pain, but he tried to ignore it in favor of being happy that he was getting Shiro back. They came to door that Keith knew Lance was behind. Shiro had a set of keys that he pulled out of his pocket to unlock the door, but something forced him to drop them.

 

Keith turned immediately in time to see Lotor raise his hand up at Keith. Purple hued tendrils swirled around Lotor’s outstretched hand, prepared to strike. Something changed in Keith, he couldn’t explain it, but it felt as if his magical energy had been turned up a thousand watts. He felt his own magic surround him, but also something else. He glanced back at Shiro to see that he had grabbed the keys off the ground and was unlocking the door. 

 

“Shiro, stop that right now.” Lotor commanded and Shiro shook his head. The door opened and Keith was able to get a look at Lance before returning his focus to Lotor. 

 

“I know you won’t kill me, I’m the only one who can break your bond.” Lotor sneered and Keith felt something change inside him. He wouldn’t mind if he was Lance’s familiar, he liked Lance. If Lotor was gone, Shiro would be free. Keith could still be with Lance and everything would be fine. But what if Lance-?

 

“Do it, Keith.” Lance called out. There was his answer, Keith rushed forward and struck Lotor. He watched Lotor crumble to the floor and let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding in. Keith looked back and Shiro and untied Lance. Lance had a knife protruding from his thigh, oozing blood around it. Shit!

 

“Shiro, are you okay?” Lance asked and Keith wondered why Lance, the one with a fucking Knife sticking out of him, was asking Shiro that, Then Keith realized. 

 

“We have to get out of here, now. We need Allura.” Keith stated, he got to Shiro and put his hands on his face. Shiro’s face was paling and he looked ready to pass out. 

 

“What’s going on?” Lance asked worriedly. 

 

“I just killed his witch, he’s not going to be doing too well for a while.” Keith clarified. Lance nodded and decided to do what he could to help. Allura had taught him how to contact her when they weren’t close. He had obviously gotten his phone taken away when they were captured so he hoped he could do this right. He sent a mental image to Allura of the scene around him. Even if he didn’t know his exact location, she would be able to tell. Lance instantly felt quite drained afterwards, but it didn’t really matter. It was just something that had to be done. He looked over at Keith, finally having a moment to look at the damage. He wanted to cry at the sight of Keith, his eyes was beyond repairable, they were just lucky whatever Lotor had stabbed him with wasn’t deep enough to have reached his brain and killed him. 

 

The three of them ended up on the floor by the time Allura got there. Keith cradled Shiro’s head in his lap and closed his eyes, Lance tried to tie his upper thigh off so there would be less blood flow, and Shiro was pretty unresponsive. Allura bought with her Coran, Hunk, and Pidge who all began helping straightaway. Allura goes to Keith first to examine the damage of his eye. Coran and Hunk came to Lance and helped wrap his leg up. Pidge started talking to Shiro lowly, coaxing him off of Keith and to come with her. In a flash, the entire group transported back to Coran and Allura’s. 

 

Pidge took Shiro into another room where she could try and calm him down. Later, Keith would explain to Lance why Shiro was having so many issues. Even though he never wanted to be bonded with Lotor, just like Keith and Lance, the consequences from the bond still applied. They could still feel each other’s pain and emotions, and if the other died, they went into a depressive state, making them feel the urge to want to die too. It didn’t last more than a few days, but it was really extreme, so a lot of witches or familiars, depending on who died, committed suicide. 

 

Allura worked on Keith, she was speaking pretty quietly to him, but Lance heard the gist of everything. She would be able to repair his eye enough that it would look normal, but he would have limited vision out of that eye. Her magic couldn’t completely repair such extensive damage. Lance had barely been paying attention to Coran or Hunk, so when they pulled the knife from his thigh, he screeched. 

 

“H-holy shit that hurt, oh my god!” Lance yelped and Coran smiled sympathetically. The closed the hole in his thigh with their magic, but couldn’t restore his lost blood. He would have to rest for the next couple days, which Lance was planning on doing anyways. Lance looked back at Keith to see him lying down beside Allura while her hands rested over his eye. Lance was comforted by her soft pink magic covering Keith, healing him. Coran announced he was going to get some food ready for everyone and Hunk volunteered to help. Lance thanked them both before they left the room. 

 

Lance stayed quiet while watching Allura work. He found himself entranced in her magic and Lance realized something. He wanted to keep learning from Allura and he was so relieved that Keith was still going to be his familiar. Keith leaving him had been a growing fear recently, especially when they had been working to get Lotor to help them. When Lotor had gotten to his apartment, he had hoped that Lotor was going to refuse to help them, just so Keith wouldn’t leave. It was selfish, but he cared about Keith so much now, after spending so much time with him and getting to know him. 

 

He was glad to start moving on from this mess. 

 

…

 

Keith ended up staying overnight at Allura’s so she could be there if he needed anything. Coran took Lance home so he could rest there. Lance face planted into his bed, not even having the energy to change, which felt very unlike him. It didn’t take long for him to fall asleep, he was had already been dozing off at Allura’s after eating. He let the darkness of his room engulf him. 

 

It didn’t last long, Lance was woke up when something caused the floor to creak loudly in his bedroom. He lurched up and got ready to scream, when the person waved their hands out wildly. 

 

“Hey! It’s just me, calm down!” Keith said, stepping towards Lance. 

 

“Oh, whoops.” Lance laughed and Keith shook his head. “What are you doing here, I thought you were supposed to stay at Allura’s?”

 

“I mean… I was supposed to stay at Allura’s, but I was out of it and didn’t know you were going home and then I woke up and you weren’t there. I haven’t talked to you since before everything happened and I feel like… we need to talk.” Keith admitted sheepishly. Lance looked at him fondly, agreeing with a nod. Lance scooted up in bed so he could lean against the headboard. He patted the bed next to him to indicate that Keith should sit next to him. Keith got onto the bed and crawled up the mattress to sit next to him while Lance turned on the lamp beside the bed. He smiled a little at Lance, which Lance could now see that his room was moderately lit up. 

 

“What’s bothering you?” Lance prompted Keith. 

“I’m not upset or anything, the opposite actually. I’m happy to be your familiar, your friend, that's why I killed Lotor. I wanted you to know it wasn't only for Shiro. I wish we hadn't had such a rough start, I know that I would have been nicer if I had met you a different way, but I'm glad it was you who found me. I really care about you, Lance.” Keith admitted. Lance smiled and was glad to hear this from Keith. 

 

Lance had to also admit that he had realized he had feelings for Keith. At first, he had chalked it up to being a result of the bond but over time, he knew they were his own feelings. 

 

“I care about you too, Keith. I actually, well..” Lance paused, trying to find the right words. 

 

“I know.” Keith spoke up, startling Lance. Lance’s eyes widened at the comment. 

 

“What do you mean ‘you know’?” Lance looked at Keith with suspicion. Keith laughed and shook his head.

 

“Lance, how many times do I have to tell you that I can feel your emotions?” Keith asked, still chuckling a little. 

 

“I forgot.” Lance huffed, feigning annoyance.  

 

“I know you did, it’s fine,” Keith laughed again, “I like you too.”

 

“Really?” 

 

“Yeah, I didn’t know how many times I would have to say I cared about you before you got the message though.” Keith smiled and Lance flushed. 

 

“Why didn’t you say anything if you knew?” Lance asked, if Keith had said something it would have saved Lance embarrassment. 

 

“I didn’t know if you wanted me to know… I was worried that you wouldn’t want to do anything about it, you do right?” Keith got serious all of a sudden, Lance could see the hesitancy and doubt written on his face. 

 

“Yeah! Yeah, I do, that’s why I was going to tell you!” Lance interjected excitedly. Keith grinned and felt relieved. He was about to say something when a yawn stopped him. 

 

“Oh my god, it’s like four in the morning, you need to go to sleep! Allura is going to kill you when she notices your gone.” Lance giggled.

 

“Ugh, you’re right. I’ll go get some sleep…” Keith started to get off of the bed but Lance stopped him by grabbing his wrist. 

 

“Wait! Um, you can sleep here, if you want? I know that my couch isn’t super comfortable and you probably should be able to sleep well because of everything that's happened and-”

 

“Lance. Okay.” Keith smiled and flopped back into the bed. They got under the covers and Lance was able to fall asleep easily with Keith beside him

 

…

 

Lance was right and Allura was not happy that Keith left. She showed up early in the morning and barged into the bedroom to yell at them. She reprimanded them, Keith for leaving and Lance for not making Keith go back. Pidge had come along with Allura and at the sight of them leaving the bedroom together, muttered “finally”. 

 

Allura checked over Keith there while Pidge inspected Lance’s healed leg. While doing so, Pidge told Keith about how Shiro was doing. Shiro was feeling a little better than the night before, but he was still in shock. Keith promised that they would head over to Allura’s later to see him, but said there was something he wanted to do first. Allura and Pidge left after only being at Lance’s for little while. Lance decided to make breakfast for him and Keith. 

 

Keith attempted to help Lance make pancakes, but only managed to make a mess with the pancake mix. Keith grumbled about Lance refusing to use magic to just make the food instead and Lance only laughed at him. Keith resolved to just sit on the counter and watch Lance cook instead. 

 

“What was it you wanted to do? Before we go over to Allura’s I mean.” Lance spoke up. 

 

“I wanted to show you something, but let’s do it after food.” Keith grinned mischievously. To say that that didn’t motivate Lance to cook faster and shovel his food into his mouth would be a lie. Keith teasingly ate slower. When Keith finally finished, Lance told Keith to just dump his dishes in the sink and that he would deal with them later, which was very unlike Lance. 

 

“I don’t know what you’re freaking out about, it’s really not that exciting.” Keith said. 

 

“Tell me!” Lance demanded. 

 

“Okay, geeze, I just wanted to let you know we could change the bond marks. As long as we both agree, we could change the tattoo to look like something other than the default last name and ivy. I thought you would want to choose something.” Keith was secretly enjoying Lance’s enthusiasm and Lance could tell. 

 

“Really? That’s great, because as much as I like the current bond mark, it’s kind of weird to have someone’s name tattooed over a large portion of your chest.” Lance admitted. Keith nodded in understanding. Lance took a moment to think of what they could do. A few ideas popped into his head, but he passed on most of them. Then it hit him:

 

“Can we do the Ursa Major constellation?” Lance suggested and Keith agreed. Keith didn’t have much of a preference, he mostly wanted Lance to find something that would make him more comfortable.  

 

Keith described the spell that they would have to do to Lance. Fortunately, it wasn’t one that they needed any materials for. Keith told Lance he would change his bond mark first so that Lance could see how it was done. Keith first instructed Lance to take off his shirt and lay down flat on the floor. Keith sank down to his knees beside Lance and hovered over the large marking. Lance shuddered when Keith placed his hands on top of Lance’s chest. Keith smiled apologetically down at him. He focused all his energy on the bond, he was sure that Lance would be able to feel that, and pictured Ursa Major in his head. He said a few words in latin and watched as the image on Lance’s skin changed. 

 

“It’s done.” Keith let Lance know. Lance hopped up from the floor and ran to the bathroom to examine the new marking in the mirror. It almost looked like it was glowing for a moment, but Lance played it off as just the lighting in the bathroom. Lance went back to Keith waiting in the living room for him. 

 

“Okay, let’s do yours.” Lance said, trying to seem confident. He was a little scared of accidentally messing up and hurting Keith. Keith removed his shirt and Lance felt his heartbeat pick up. Partially just because Keith looked really good with his shirt off and the one other time he saw Keith like this, he hadn’t taken a moment to appreciate. 

 

Lance kneeled down beside him like Keith had done. Keith reminded him the words to say and what to do and Lance nodded. He placed his hands on Keith’s chest and tried to think about their bond and not the warm skin underneath his fingers. Keith’s laughter distracted Lance from the spell. He opened his eyes and glared down at Keith, who had covered his mouth to suppress his giggles.

 

“What?!” Lance exclaimed, causing Keith to only laugh more. 

 

“Stop thinking about me shirtless and do the spell,” Keith pulled himself together enough to blurt this out and Lance flushed a dark red. Lance had to stop forgetting Keith knew what he was feeling. 

 

Lance managed to get the spell over with and looked down at his work. It looked good, identical to his own. 

 

“Nice job.” Keith praised him. Lance murmured a thank you.

 

Lance cleaned up their dishes and then Keith transported them to Allura’s. Keith separated from Lance for the first few minutes to go talk to Shiro. Lance understood, they had a lot ot catch up on and he didn’t blame Keith  for wanting to spend some time with Shiro. So, Lance stuck with Allura and Coran in their kitchen, eating the leftover pastries from the day. Allura pulled out a bottle of wine that she felt they deserved for their victory. 

 

Keith took longer than Lance had anticipated, so when he finally joined the trio, Lance had had maybe one too many glasses of wine. He was flushed and joking around with Coran. When Lance noticed Keith had entered the room, his whole face lit up. Coran raised his eyebrows and Allura subtly nodded in his direction. They stuck around for a little while longer, Keith cut Lance off from anymore alcoholic beverages. 

 

After realizing that Lance got clingy while drunk, Keith decided it was time for them to get back to Lance’s. Keith peeked into the guest bedroom where Shiro was staying one more time to say goodbye. Keith transported them back to Lance’s and Lance immediately headed for the couch, pulling Keith along with him. Lance set up a movie that he assured Keith that he would like and then leaned up against him. 

 

“Now I’m tired again.” Lance frowned. 

 

“That’s why you don’t get drunk at 4:30 in the afternoon.” Keith commented and patted Lance’s head. Because of the lack of response from Lance, Keith turned to look at Lance. What Keith was not expecting was for Lance to surge forward and smash their lips, and noses, together. It ended as quickly as Lance had started it and Keith’s eyes widened. Lance smirked and sank back down into the couch. Keith was left speechless as he watched Lance’s eyes droop and close. 

 

…

 

“You let our first kiss be when I was drunk!?” Lance yelled the next morning after Keith told Lance of the events from the previous night. Keith didn’t regret it. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so glad that I found the inspiration to pick this fic back up and finish it. Every time I've started working on a different fic I remembered this one and felt bad that I hadn't touched it for like half a year. But now, it is done. Thank you so much for any comments or kudos you left!


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